Accent Modification

Learn to speak to be easily understood

Modify your accent to improve communication while maintaining your cultural identity.

What is an accent?

We all have accents! Nonnative English speakers use the melody, stress, and rhythm patterns of their native language. In addition, the movement of the lips, tongue, and jaw are often influenced by the first language and this will affect the ability to pronounce the consonants and vowels of American English. Many of us want to keep our cultural identity and not lose our accents. An accent may become an issue if it interferes with communication and affects our professional success and future opportunities.

What is a dialect?

Speakers of the same language may have variations in pronunciation, word choice, voice quality, and grammar patterns due to where they live. There is nothing wrong with these patterns; they are just different. Many people choose to modify a “dialect” to blend in with others in their locale or for professional purposes.

What is accent modification training?

The goal of accent modification training is to help the individual speak effectively so that speech is “listener friendly.” Accent elimination is not the intention of this training! The individual is learning an American accent. After a careful analysis of the individual’s speech patterns, a customized training program is designed.

What is Accent Modification?

The Dynamics of Accent

What does the training include?

Training incorporates American English speech patterns into daily communication. Participants will learn appropriate pronunciation, intonation patterns, grammar, and vocabulary to ensure effective communication skills. We emphasize pronunciation and stress patterns of work-related vocabulary. Cultural communication styles are discussed. Needs assessments and pre and post-self-rating surveys are included. A written report with objectives guides the training process.  

Improved communication, productivity, and confidence result in increased career growth opportunities.

What training materials are used?

Lynda Katz Wilner co-founded ESL RULES with Marjorie Feinstein-Whittaker. They published assessment and training materials for non-native English speakers. The RULES approach to accent modification is an innovative, comprehensive, cutting-edge approach designed for intermediate to advanced students.

Who Can Benefit?

Actors

Architects

Attorneys

Broadcasters

CEOs

Clergy

Customer Service Representatives

Executives

IT Professionals

Lab Technicians

Nurses

Pharmacists

Physicians

Politicians

Professors

Professional Athletes

Realtors

Receptionists

Sales Executives

Scientists

Stockbrokers

Teachers

Telemarketers

Trainers

Reviews

  • We brought Lynda in to improve speaking and presentation skills for a couple of our key staff. Lynda really understood speech, presentation, the difficulties foreign born speakers have and how to solve them. She coached each of her students with tailored instructions and tips so that they can be understood and effectively deliver their message. She always had a pleasant and encouraging demeanor that made everyone feel comfortable. I can see that our staff now knows what aspects of speech to work on and can see visible improvement as they implement her instruction. We are all very appreciative of her help and happy to have found a great speaking coach.

    -Simon Woo, SimonComputing, Inc.

  • “Lynda Katz Wilner is an excellent educator and her coaching style is second to none. Lynda’s diligence in making sure that I understood the area I needed improvement was impeccable. The RULES by the Sound program, especially with the vowels, was wonderful and an eye opener. Thank you! ”

    — Rafiu Ighile, Howard County Deputy Director of Finance

  • “I am really impressed by Lynda’s professionalism and more importantly, her capacity to quickly identify your strengths and weaknesses to work on it. She is very methodical, patient, and extremely competent in coaching. One of Lynda’s strengths is her capacity to explain complex English rules and also identify the right materials. ”

    — Seydou Doumbia, Global Health Fellow with USAID, working in Democratic Republic of Congo

  • “It is my immense pleasure to recommend Ms. Lynda Katz Wilner to people who have difficulty in accent, public speaking, and communication. I feel honored to have had her as my instructor and I liked the one-on-one approach because it is both demanding and fulfilling to have a teacher giving you her full attention. She is an excellent teacher, versatile and innovative, she has a wealth of knowledge as well as a genuine interest in the progression of her students. I found her teaching methods extremely effective in that the pace of learning and the variety of resources she used allowed me to get a maximum outcome within a short period of time. She also offers innovative and interactive solutions, which allowed me to continue my training online through a unique online service, which I could devote my efforts whenever I had the time. Highly recommended, especially if you have a busy schedule and want to maximize your learning.”

    — VS, professional from Iran, living in the USA

  • “Working with Successfully Speaking has been one of the best moves I have made in my professional career. I was born in Africa, but now work as a corporate executive in the U.S. Prior to working with Lynda, I had great diction, construction and language structure, but little awareness of and focus on the stress patterns that characterize and distinguish American speech. My goal was not to acquire an American accent, but rather to be clear and succinct in my communication. This is particularly important as I make many public speeches and presentations. Understanding tone, voice inflection, stress patterns – both syllable and word stress – has significantly improved my ability to communicate to professional audiences around the country. Lynda has through our 1:1 sessions and the material in her RULES book, helped me to identify, listen for, recognize, self correct, and consistently apply tone and stress patterns that make my speech easy to understand. She also has a great friendly coaching style! I would highly recommend Successfully Speaking.”

    — GG, Attorney

  • With English being my second language, I started my training with Lynda hopeful but uncertain of outcome. I did not know whether it was even possible to correct my pronunciation - there were these subtle things that I couldn’t put my finger on… and so I assumed those would forever remain unfixed. Lynda identified the roots of my problems within minutes. To make her corrective exercises more effective, she reached out to my past using examples that were relevant to me. I learned fast to detect the errors. That was step #1. Then, I practiced and quite quickly noticed the difference. But the training did not stop at correcting sounds. It advanced towards improving communication skills and speech by, again, identifying simple to fix issues. I would recommend this training to anyone who strives to sound confident and executive. Thank you Lynda!

    -Ewa Jaruga-Killeen, Director, North America Clinical Operation